Overclocking a Raspberry Pi

In this instructables I will show you how to overclock a Raspberry Pi. You don't need a heat sink or a fan, because the temperautre won't go over the 50-60 C (120-140 F). Please vote for me in the Raspberry Pi contest. Good luck with overclocking!(!) I am not responsible for anything that happens because of this tutorial (!)

4. It will ask you if the SD card is connected, insert your SD card and press continue

5. Select your SD card

6. It will ask you to enter your administrator password, enter it

7. Look if your SD card is unmounted and press continue

8. After a while it says complete

9. Your SD card has now the Raspbian Image

Installing Raspbian on your Raspberry

1. Insert your SD card into your Raspberry Pi and connect your screen

2. Plugin your power, your Raspberry will turn on and boot Raspbian for the first time

3. You will get some options, you can skip them but I recommend that you select 1. Expand filesystem otherwise you will run out of memory and 3. Enable Boot to Desktop, I prefer the command line for overclocking.

4. Select finish, you will now be in the command line

5. Raspbian is now installed

Step 2: Installing Java, HWBOT Prime and OpenArena

Before we start overclocking we install two benchmark programs and java.

Installing Java

1. If you have already JDK7 installed remove it with $ sudo apt-get remove openjdk-7-jre2. Use $ wget http://www.java.net/download/jdk8/archive/b117/binaries/jdk-8-ea-b117-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-20_nov_2013.tar.gz to download JDK8 (this one is only for ARM chips)3. Now use the followning commands for installing: $ sudo tar zxvf jdk-8-ea-b117-linux-arm-vfp-hflt-20_nov_2013.tar.gz –C /opt then$ sudo update-alternatives –install “/usr/bin/java” “java” “/opt/jdk1.8.0/bin/java” 1 at last use $ java -version

Installing HWBOT Prime

1. To install HWBOT Prime you only need to download the .JAR with $ wget http://downloads.hwbot.org/hwbotprime.jar2. Use $ java -jar hwbotprime.jar to run the benchmarks on the default specs.

Installing OpenArena

1. Run the following commands to install OpenArena: $ sudo apt-get install openarena then use $ wget http://www.berryterminal.com/dl/ioquake3_99.1.36-rpi01_armhf.deb and at last use $ sudo dpkg -i ./ioquake3_99.1.36-rpi01_armhf.deb2. Now use $ sudo apt-get clean to remove the leftovers

Step 3: Overclocking

To overclock the Raspberry Pi you only need to change the config.txt. You can do this with your pc (the file is on the SD card) or with the command line

Editing the Config.txt with the command line

1. Go to the config.txt with this command: $ sudo nano /boot/config.txt2. You will see a lot of options but you can skip the most of them, here is a list with the important options and there explannation:frequency overclockingarm_freq – ARM frequency, default = 700MHzgpu_freq – GPU frequency, default = 250MHzdram_freq – SDRAM frequency, default = 500MHzcore_freq – GPU core frequency, has an impact on ARM performance since it drives L2 cacheh264_freq – frequency of the hardware video blockisp_freq – frequency of the image sensor pipeline blockv3d_freq – frequency of the 3D blockVoltage overclocking(!) The voltages can't be chosen individually, they will al be set to the lowest voltage (!)(!) The minium is -16 the maxium 8, every step is 0.025 volt. The default is 0, with 1.2 volt (!)over_voltage – ARM and GPU core voltage adjustment, defaultover_voltage_sdram – sets all other SDRAM voltages togetherover_voltage_sdram_c – SDRAM controller voltage adjustmentover_voltage_sdram_i – SDRAM I/O voltage adjustmentover_voltage_sdram_p – SDRAM phy voltage adjustment3. You can use your mouse and keyboard to change the values4. Exit with Esc and reboot your Raspberry Pi

Editing the Config.txt with your pc

1. Turn off your Raspberry Pi (unplug the power) and take your SD card2. Insert your SD card into your computer and go to the folder Boot3. Open the config.txt with your preferred text editor4. You will see a lot of options but you can skip the most of them, here is a list with the important options and there explannation:

Step 5: My Configuration and Benchmarks

Because a few people asked for my configuration and benchmarks I added a extra step with my configuration and benchmarks

Config.txtI edited the following things in the config.txt:arm_freq=1200gpu_freq=355core_freq=710h264_freq=250isp_freq=250v3d_freq=250sdram_freq=680over_voltage=8over_voltage_sdram=6over_voltage_sdram_c=0over_voltage_sdram_i=0over_voltage_sdram_p=0disable_l2cache=0force_turbo=1temp_limit=85avoid_pwm_pll=1

Benchmarks568.6 primes per second with HWBOT Prime16.2 frames per second with OpenArena

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20 Discussions

I did some simple testing running a timed fibonacci recursive algorithm in python and took temps. stock was 38C at 160s with HS and with fan was 26C and took 11s less to run at same speed and same for each overclock.pretty much 7% faster just by running cooler and at turbo with fan 31C max and only took 100s for same test. My thought is think of cooling regardless.

I did mine manually with the config file. Mines overclocked to 1150 mhz and overvolted to 1.4 volts or 8 in the settings. I also have all the othe speeds to thier maximum allowable. With no heatsink or fan it still wont go above 50c so its got room for more overclocking. Mine runs just fine at those specs but i probably voided whatever warrenty i had.

You all should visit the RPi website for over-clocking caveats. You can easily "bake" your Pi and void the warranty. That said, if you bought two Pis, then fry away. There are much easier ways to over-clock on the site as well. Caveat emptor ! :- )